cipe, but details as to
materials, the preparation thereof, the degree of heat required, the
common causes of failure and, in fact, everything that in the mind of a
practical cook would be helpful to the class. Notes are taken, and
afterwards properly written out and examined by the teacher of the
school.

The instructors prepare the food for cooking, and sometimes, as in the
case of rolls and so on, they cook the food in the presence of the
pupils. When white bread is to be baked, the pupils are asked to call, a
few minutes after school, at the home of the instructor, to watch the
first step--setting the sponge--and again the next morning before school
to see the next step--mixing the bread--and again, about half-past
eleven or twelve, to see the bread ready for the oven and, finally, on
the way back to school, to see the result--a fine loaf of well-cooked
bread. The pupils try the recipe carefully in their own homes, not
varying its terms until they are able to make the dish successfully.
When they can do this, they are free to experiment with modifications,
and there should be no objection to receiving help from any source; in
fact, it is a good thing for the daughter to get her mother to criticize
her and offer suggestions in the many little details familiar to every
housekeeper, but which cannot always be given by an instructor in one
lesson.

By this method the pupils learn in their own homes and handle real
cooking utensils on a real stove heated by the usual fire of that home.
If it is a good thing--and no one doubts it--to learn Household Science
in a school where everything that invention and skill can provide for
the pupils is readily at hand, is it not worth while to enter the field
of actual life and, with cruder implements, win a fair degree of
success?

At the end of five or six months, after the pupils have had an
opportunity to become skilful in making some of the dishes which have
been taught, it may be well to have an exhibition of their work. Each
pupil may, on Saturday afternoon, bring one or more of the dishes she
has learned to prepare to the school-house, where they may be arranged
on tables for the inspection of the judges. The dishes exhibited should
be certified to as being the work of the pupil with no help or
suggestion from anybody. Of course, work of this kind cannot be
undertaken by the "suit case" teacher. The teacher who packs her bag on
Friday at noon, carries it to school with her